Monthly reads: September 2022

 

I did read more books this month yet again. Which feels almost weird, but...I just slowly felt my book-reading mood coming back? Haven't felt like that for a while now, but I'm not sure how long this'll last.

Die Chronik der Unsterblichen: Der Vampyr / Der Todesstoß / Der Untergang / Die Wiederkehr / Die Blutgräfin (Wolfgang Hohlbein)

I usually really enjoy books and book series by Wolfgang Hohlbein. And this one is no exception. Sure, the stories and prose aren't especially deep, but his style is just really engaging and fun and easy to read. Perfect to huddle on the couch with a blanket and a hot cup of tea and escape reality for a while. That's exactly what I want and need in Autumn, so it wasn't hard for me to pick this book series from my huge unread list. And I'm glad there are still ~10 more volumes to read!

Dear Oxbridge (Nele Pollatschek)

I usually don't read books by Germans telling stories about their life and experiences in other countries anymore. In most cases I just can't bring myself to care about what the narrator wants to tell me, and often enough I even find the narrator/author pretty unlikable. Not in this case – judging from the writing style and the things she was writing about I often found myself agreeing with her. And there were quite a few things I found really interesting, even if I've already read countless books about life in the UK. (And we're not even talking about all those TV shows I've watched...) So well, I was pleasantly surprised here!

Lebensgeister (Banana Yoshimoto)

A few years ago I read a few books by Banana Yoshimoto and I mostly remember really liking „Kitchen“. The other books were pretty good, too. But...I just didn't like this one here at all. Sure, the descriptions of Kyoto were pretty good and atmospheric. Everything else was less good, though. I couldn't connect to the characters at all and the book felt way too...esoteric? spiritual? for my tastes. It wasn't even the thing about the mainchar being able to see ghosts, but rather the fact that she herself seemed like a ghost herself, with all this weird esoteric talk about inner healing and stuff. Nah, not my favourite by this author. Definitive not.

Frauen in Japan / Das verhasste Alter (various authors)

Two anthologies with short stories by Japanese authors. I already knew some of the authors, but I also discovered a lot of new ones. The stories were pretty good, too, but there wasn't one that made me want to read more from the same author ASAP. Still, decent anthologies, because there weren't any really bad stories and that's worth something, I think.

Angels in the Moonlight (Caimh McDonnell)

I was a bit sceptical about this prequel, because frankly...as much as I love Bunny (who doesn't?), I was sure that I would miss the other characters from the original trilogy. And well, I did miss them, but I still liked the prequel a lot. Even though I still prefer the trilogy, haha. But we still get a cast of quirky, interesting characters instead of the ones we already know and the crime part is also pretty good. So...while I still have the final book of the trilogy left, I'm not worried about whether I'd enjoy the prequels and other related books anymore. Which is pretty nice.

Monthly reads: August 2022

 

 I only really started reading and finishing books around August 20, so...this pile of books is pretty impressing, I think,

Riskante Begierden (Taeko Kono)

Well...judging from the blurb on the back the german publisher thought that this book was mostly about 'risque erotic'. And while the sadomasochistic relationship between the main characters is admittedly very important for the story...I don't think that's all or even most there is to the book. I liked how Taeko Kono portrayed life in war-time Japan with all its dangers and problems for everyday life. The contrast between that difficult public life and the private life of a unusual husband and wife was what made the book so good. Anyway, I loved it a lot. Will re-read at some point.

Knabenjagd (Taeko Kono)

This short-story collection was pretty good, too! Some of the stories have morally questionable protagonists, but I also really liked that. It's not always necessary to have a relatable character tell their story to the readers, I'd say. I know that many people nowadays might disagree, but...that's how fiction works, isn't it? Do we always want to read about people who are just like us, live lifes like ours and react to things in the same way we do? I don't think so. So, that's why this collection was also pretty interesting. I don't think there's much translated stuff by Taeko Kono save for these two books, but I would like to read more of her stories.

Das Jagdgewehr (Yasushi Inoue)

I do enjoy the works of many Japanese authors, but well...Inoue isn't one of my favourites, I guess. It's not that his books are bad, but I just can't find an emotional connection to his themes and protagonists. Of course the plot of this short little book was pretty interesting and I nevertheless liked reading about the connections between the protagonists lives. But the book failed to make me actually feel for them. Well, it just wasn't a book for me. I will try another Inoue book, but there's a lot of stuff with a higher priority on my reading list!

Zerbrochene Sterne (various authors)

As usual, some stories from an anthology are good, some are bad, but...overall I really liked this one. My favourite was the story about how the first emperor of China became a gamer. I would love to read an entire book about this idea because even just the premise sounds just great and the story was also very fun!

Quantenträume (various authors)

Same as above, but this one had more stories I didn't like as much. I'm very interested in the issue of artificial intelligence, but some stories just weren't my cup of tea. However, some of them were quite good, I have to admit that much. I liked the one about a woman falling in love with an AI, for example.

Komm, ich erzähl dir eine Geschichte (Jorge Bucay)

I got this book from someone, that's why I read through it pretty quickly. Some of the stories were nice, but I don't think the morale of most stories was surprising or very helpful. Most people say that this book opened their eyes for certain issues about their own life and psyche, but...I'm painfully aware of the things I need to change about myself, I don't need to be reminded of them by a book! Actually implementing those changes is the really hard part, but that's not something anything like a book could help me with.

Unter Beschuss (Michael Wolff)

I enjoyed reading Fire and Fury, Wolff's first book about Donald Trump. This one was...not as good, I think. Of course there was still a lot of interesting stuff, but this time the focus was less on Trump and more on all the weirdos he brought with him to the White House. And, well, I'm mainly here to read funny stories about the stupid orange man, haha. Mostly because there's always doubt about whether the author's sources really always told him the truth anyway, so I'd rather read his books for their entertainment value. And this one was just less entertaining than the first one. Maybe I will one day read an actual comprehensive account of Trump's presidency, but I'm not that much into US politics after all.

Monthly reads: July 2022

 

Well...I thought last month was bad, but this one is clearly worse. I can't even remember the last time I finished just one puny book in a month...

Romanze östlich des Sumidagawa (Nagai Kafu)

At least that one book was really good, though. I liked especially how it made me feel like I was actually there, seeing old Japan through the protagonist's eyes or exploring 1930s Tokyo together with him. I guess this won't be my last book by Nagai Kafu, although I need to check out whether there are more translations of his works. I don't think there's all that much available in German, so I might need to go for English, if possible.

Monthly reads: June 2022

 

I don't feel like I've actually read a single book this month, but at least I managed to finish these three. Not very impressive though.

U2532: Bis zum bitteren Ende (Erik Maasch)

I kind of enjoy reading this kind of German WWII submarine stories, even though I'm not especially into marine warfare. (I am interested in WWII though, but I know a lot more about tanks and planes than ships and subs.) This one was also pretty entertaining, as it showed the final days and hours of the war and how everything ended for them when it had in fact ended long ago. It's not especially deep or anything (no pun intended, although it would be a good one!), but it's a decent read. I'll read more of it if I'll occasionally get some of the books for cheap.

Die schlafenden Schönen (Yasunari Kawabata)

Haven't read japanese literature in ages (or that's how it feels, would need to look it up) and this one was a good place to start again. I'd say that Kawabata is one of my favourite Japanese authors of the 20^th century as there wasn't a single one I didn't like among the books of his I've read so far. This story about old men and sleeping young women was oddly mesmerising and entertaining, even though it also felt wrong to gaze at the 'sleeping beauties' through the eyes of Eguchi, one of those very men. Nevertheless, it made me feel all sorts of things and it's also thought-provoking and that's what I like most about Kawabata's stories.

Für die Freiheit sterben (James M. McPherson)

I have been reading on this huge book for literal ages and I'm so glad I'm done now. It was an interesting read, but sometimes I got confused by all those names of people and battles. Also, the blatant racism of the olden times was sometimes pretty hard to stomach. So, not an especially pleasant read, but still very good.

 

Monthly reads: May 2022

 

Not many books this month. I'm wondering how I actually managed to finish those four books...

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 1 (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu)

I watched the donghua. I watched the drama adaption called 'The Untamed'. As of yet I even listened to a few audio drama episodes and I'm planning to finish this version, too. And yet I apparently never quite understood or noticed many smaller aspects of the story. Like the fact that Lan Zhan noticed pretty much immediately that the young man he was dealing with was in fact not some random weak lunatic from the Mo family, but rather no other than Wei Wuxian. (That's not the only thing I never quite got in the adaptions, but probably the biggest one.) Also, it's probably due to Chinese censorship laws, but even just this first volume of the story already advanced their relationship so much more than the complete drama and donghua. So that's why I'm especially happy about us Westerners being able to enjoy the original work now. It's just that good. Well, at least if you ask me and the many other fans of the series and the author's other works! Oh, and I also do like the translation. I heard that there were quite a few complaints about some things not being accurate, but...I couldn't really agree with some of the 'translation errors' others were pointing out. Those scenes made perfect sense to me.

Der begrabene Riese (Kazuo Ishiguro)

I enjoyed this a lot, which surprised me a bit. Then again, it's the book I actually wanted to read first when I started looking out for Ishiguro's works in bookshops and bargain bins etc. So I guess we've come full circle now! Anyway, I liked how the book was partially an entertaining historical fantasy story (with dragons, knights and people going on a journey – whee!), but it was also very obviously an Ishiguro book. It was a bit like 'The Unconsoled', but way less confusing. Well, the ending was a bit confusing, and I'm still not sure about Axl's role in his earlier life. Honestly, at one point I expected him to actually be the aged King Arthur, haha. Anyway, I guess that one's one of my favourite books from the author, too. Although nothing beats his first two Japanese-set books in my opinion!

Waffenschmuggel (Eric Ambler)

This one was a bit of a bore at times (the entire part about the annoying woman and the tourist couple...frankly, I expected the woman to pop up later again and ruin things or something!) and the way some characters are portrayed are pretty outdated. Still, it was a quick read and some parts were actually a lot of fun. Not my favourite from this author though.

Das Santa-Lucia-Rätsel (C.H. Guenter)

Well, I guess this book could be considered something like a penny dreadful. Cheap, but fun entertainment – if you're ready to enjoy stuff like that and switch off your brain for a moment while reading, that is. Some plot elements probably wouldn't make any sense if your thought about them for too long and yet I really enjoyed reading the book. I was also quite surprised that issues like global warming and the lack of food and water for millions of people especially in Africa were brought up here. And not in a derisive way, but shown as actual issues humanity has to deal with at some point. That's another thing I really liked about the book!